...for the time of year, and I'm busy ordering stock like a woman with no arms.  

Don't usually worry too much about restocking in January, as long as we've got some good stuff in time for Valentine's Day, but the milder weather is bringing people out so we're a bit busier than usual this month - not complaining!  And after a very busy December the shelves are looking a bit gappy in places.   

It's lovely to see actual people in the marketplace, not tumbleweed, and to have humans to talk to instead of the farm cat, whose visits are shorter and less frequent now he's found another three sources of grub among the farm tenants.

But it IS ridiculous.  I know they say 'ne'er cast a clout 'til May be out', but I'm still wearing scarves and hats to walk the dog on the beach and it's June.  Flaming June apparently.  Too right!  A tiny glimpse of watery sunshine sees me flinging all the shop doors open, only to shut most of them half an hour later after we've all donned thick cardigans and scarves, and the wind's blowing a hooley around the shop picking up leaflets and signs in it's wake.

... or toes, ears a-tinglin' with the sound of bell-ringers, nostrils a-twitchin' with the whiffs of mulled wine, hot dogs and popcorn.  Can only mean one thing - the annual Tankerton Christmas Fair in and around the lovely Whitstable Castle and grounds.  Fast becoming one of my favourite gigs of the year, helped by it being a) only 3 minutes from home, b) a chance to catch up with friends and neighbours (including those we were out on the razz with in Whitstable only last night!

They say that where there's muck there's brass, so if the amount of clarts on the apples we've been sorting for pressing today is anything to go by we're in for a premium Woolly Pig Vintage 2012.  But hey, what's a bit of mud between friends?  No doubt the soil underneath the National Fruit Collection apple trees is full of good nutrients, so it can't do any harm to lob a bit into the mill with the fruit every now and then.  I mean, pregnant women crave it, toddlers munch on it.

Well, after a bumpy start at the beginning of the week, when it seemed unlikely we could get enough apples to get going with Woolly Pig 2012, we  now have the first 1,000 litres in the bag with the next 1,000 well underway. 

Our greatest and oldest friends Terry, Maureen and Nick made the 330 mile journey from ooop naarth to give us a hand (maybe with a more romantic notion of cider pressing in mind than the dusty, sticky, back-breaking slog it really is) and have got truly stuck in this week, lugging 11kg boxes of apples around the orchards and the barn, scrabbling under trees knee deep in mud and rotten fruit to scrump what we could when stocks of picked fruit ran low, wheelbarrowing piles of pomace around to feed the woolly pigs.

Oh heck, what with twittering and facebooking I keep forgetting to blog.  Doesn't help that I get the evils from Neil for drinking tea and tapping on the laptop when he is left with 100s of boxes of books, cards, gifts, wines, beers and liqueurs to unpack for the imminent apple festival,  Brogdale's biggest gig of the year (although the cider festival this year broke all box office records).  So, we've spent the last few days ordering, unpacking, pricing and shelving lots of fabulous stuff, anticipating that people will choose this weekend to start their Christmas shopping (apologies for using the C word when there's still over two months to go).

Well that link didn't seem to work IN MY LAST BLOG, which is annoying, so here it is again  http://www.groupon.co.uk/deals/maidstone/Brogdale-Cider-Festival/10361425?nlp=&CID=UK_CRM_1_0_0_258&a=470

Check this out folks - it has to be the best deal ever!  Even if you don;t bring the kids, two adults getting in for less than a tenner is a fantastic offer...

Yes they do, in 2 and 4 pint containers out of the shop door, and we can't seem to rack this little beauty off fast enough (note use of technical term here).  Pop in for a taste and let us know what you think.  Young and fresh, just like the people who made it lol.

Six polypins have gone up to the Beer and Cider Fest at the Robin Hood pub in Blue Bell Village, along with an arm-stretching 33 others we supplied this week. 

The festival runs from 22nd June to the 1st of July, with great bands and hog roasts and fabulous local beers and ciders.

Well, you can tell the festivities are over when Moira's dulcet tones start interrupting our Classic FM reverie to remind us (more accurately, me) to get on with our blimmin' tax returns.  Seasonal felicitations to you too HMRC.  Having spent the last two days catching up with nearly three month's accounts to get a VAT return in on time, finally transmitted at 7.29pm last night, I hoped for a brief respite... but sadly it's not to be.

 

Apart from us all having the lurgy over Christmas, and the dog eating a whole brandy-soaked Christmas cake and a full box, both layers, of chocolate brazils, all was comfort & joy in the TP household.